Does this woman really know what happens to us when we die?

AN expert in near death experiences, Dr Penny Sartori has spent 15 years interviewing patients who claim they came back from the dead..

Dr Penny Sartori has spent 15 years interviewing patients who claim they came back from the dead

We have all heard stories of patients lying apparently lifeless on a hospital bed while doctors work frantically to resuscitate them. When they come round they talk about seeing a white light at the end of a long tunnel. They may often report talking to loved ones.

While sceptics may dismiss these visions as little more than the effect of anaesthesia, these tales are accounts of classic near-death experiences (NDEs). After more than 21 years as a nurse, the last 17 of those in intensive care, I’ve heard countless similar stories.

I became so fascinated with NDEs I decided to undertake my own study at the Morriston Hospital in Swansea where I work. I began documenting NDEs and my research is the largest of its kind in the UK. I was awarded my PhD in NDEs five years ago from the University of Wales.

At first I thought this phenomenon was caused by hallucinations but one 59-year-old’s experience I documented clearly suggests this isn’t the case. The woman was admitted to A&E with severe asthma and revealed that she suddenly found herself feeling calm. In reality she’d blacked out.

Next she was looking down on her body in the hospital bed and she spotted a mousetrap on top of the cupboard. She then saw a bright light. She was drawn towards it and figures appeared as outlines.

She felt incredibly peaceful and travelled towards the light but the figures told her she had to go back. “I wasn’t sure who the beings were but I had a feeling I knew them,” she told me. “They felt like family members.”

When the woman woke up in A&E she told a nurse about her experience. The nurse then discovered the mousetrap on top of the cupboard.

Other people I’ve interviewed for my research reported travelling down a tunnel and meeting relatives, some have seen spiritual or religious beings standing in bright light, while others have even undergone a life review where everything they’ve done flashed before them. However all the cases I’ve spoken to have one thing in common: they are told it’s not their time or they make a voluntary effort to return to their body. The traditional medical view of NDEs is that they’re caused by drugs, a lack of oxygen to the brain or hallucinations. However my research found that in some cases oxygen levels were normal during an NDE and other patients were not receiving drug treatments yet both still had NDEs.

I have also talked to people who have been recorded as clinically dead for up to five minutes yet during this time they’ve undergone a powerful experience they can recall.

Following 15 years of research, I have come to the conclusion that NDEs are real, spiritual experiences that can have a profound effect.

Some people change their lifestyle and careers while others become less materialistic. The psychological impact can be overwhelming with people afterwards saying they now know the death of the physical body isn’t the end. I’ve even discovered people whose energy field appears to change. If they stand near household appliances, such as kettles, the equipment blows up or becomes faulty for no apparent reason.

I recently headed up new research called The Hereafter Report which shows that 66 per cent of people in the UK now believe in life after death, up from 47 per cent in 1955.

I’m not surprised by the high figure because I suspect many people have NDEs but are afraid to disclose the experience for fear of being ridiculed.

I also believe current scientific thinking is unable to understand NDEs and that the boundaries of science with respect to this phenomenon need to be revised.

But of course however we investigate NDEs, we will never be 100 per cent sure what happens after death until we die ourselves. Meanwhile we can simply try to make sense of the tantalising glimpses reported by others.